Bobcat Goldthwait Directing Robin Williams in 'World's Greatest Dad'

Okay: Bobcat Goldthwait + Robin Williams + a title like World's Greatest Dad = run for the hills. Right? I mean, I had to suppress a shriek upon reading that headline. But then I read further and ... this looks kind of awesome. I'm not joking.

Here's the pitch: Williams plays a high school poetry teacher and failed writer whose son dies in a freak masturbation accident. Stay with me here, folks. Not wanting to expose his family to the embarrassing publicity of a freak masturbation accident resulting in death, Williams' character decides to cover it up by writing a fake suicide note and claiming that his son took his own life.

When the story -- including the suicide note -- becomes a sensation, he decides to revive his writing career by fabricating an entire journal supposedly written by his son before his death. I get the sense that they mean "World's Greatest Dad" ironically.

That takes care of the title, and most likely the possibility that the film will be another piece of insufferable Robin Williams treacle like Patch Adams or License to Wed. (In spirit it sounds more like Death to Smoochy, which I realize might still be touch-and-go.) It still leaves the pesky matter of Bobcat Goldthwait. But wait: while I haven't seen Goldthwait's edgy directorial debut Sleeping Dogs Lie, a comedy about a woman who reveals a youthful act of bestiality to her fiancé, the movie was very well-reviewed when it premiered at Sundance in 2006.